Culture I’m a Mom and CEO, and I Don’t Support Maternity Leave - Making the case against maternity leave — in support of equity for all.

Katica Roy
3 min read
Feb 19, 2020

Making the case against maternity leave — in support of equity for all.



During my first pregnancy, people often asked if I planned to stay home with my son after he was born. It wasn’t the type of question I had been expecting. Of course I wasn’t planning to stay home with him. I was the primary breadwinner for my family, and we depended on my job for health insurance. Returning to work was the only option.

I’m not alone. In the US, 40% of households with children rely on breadwinner moms for their economic well-being. And, a full 71% of US families rely on moms’ work to bring in, on average, 40% of household income.

Considering that the US is one of two countries in the world with no guaranteed paid leave for new mothers, it’s no wonder one in four American mothers are back at work within ten days of giving birth.

Yet, as a mom, CEO, and founder of a gender equity SaaS company, I do not advocate for maternity leave. Instead, I support paid caregiver leave. Here’s why.

4 Reasons to Support Paid Caregiver Leave​

1. Caregiver leave removes ambiguity between benefits.​

Removing maternal, paternal, or parental qualifiers creates a gender-neutral policy and eliminates the chance for bias to emerge between benefits. Mothers, fathers, daughters, sons receive the same time and resources to take care of loved ones. It’s a signal to employees that their roles, whether it be on the homefront or in the office — are valued equitably.

2. Caregiver leave recognizes the growing demands of caring for aging parents.​

Children are often just one side of the equation. As we are currently witnessing with the sandwich generation (I’m raising my hand), elderly parents need someone to look after them too. In fact, the number of 40-to-60-year-olds who financially, emotionally, or domestically support at least one child and a parent over the age of 65 is increasing. We must acknowledge these growing demands and allow employees space to care for sick family members.

The lack of caregiver leave disproportionality burdens women, and not only because the gender pay gap restrains their financial ability to provide for family members.

We must remember that women are the majority of the US labor force (50.04%) and still perform more unpaid labor than men. Compared to men, women perform four extra days of domestic duties every year.

A gender-neutral caregiver leave would alleviate this stress and help promote gender equity by encouraging men to take on more responsibilities on the homefront.

3. Caregiver leave removes the stigma associated with paternity or maternity leave.​

This is important, especially for the 98% of fathers with children at home who participate in our nation’s labor force. As it stands, most Americans don’t support the idea that fathers can stay home as caretakers of their families: only 1% of Americans say fathers do a better job than mothers at caretaking.

And yet, 48% of fathers aspire to the role of full-time stay-at-home dad. Fathers want to look after and bond with their children, but mainstream narratives around masculinity hold them back.

A Deloitte survey found that nearly two-thirds of men believed that taking time off to spend with children “would be perceived as a lack of commitment to their jobs.”

Offering caregiver over paternity leave is one small nudge that can help change this gendered narrative. Fathers (and all caregivers) should be empowered by the opportunity to play a greater role in their families’ lives — no stigma attached.

4. Caregiver leave promotes equity for all​

The main reason I support paid caregiver leave? Because it brings us one step closer to gender equity. By the latest estimates, our world will close the economic gender equity gap in the year 2277. That’s a full 257 years away, and every incremental gain helps.

Gender equity, at its core, is about equity for all. Everyone stands to benefit from the improved physical, mental, and economic health that’s waiting for us on the other side of the gender equity gap.

This article was first published on my website.

© 2020 Pipeline Equity, Inc.

Source Archive

 

[ur_mom_lmaoooo]

The author:



Her husband:

 

[JohnnyG]

founder of a gender equity SaaS company

Opinion emphatically discarded.

I support paid caregiver leave

Taking Minneapolis and NYC as models, where the entire Third World population is signed up as "caregivers" of their (real or imaginary) extended families to receive billions of taxpayer dollars per year...

 

[Summer of George]

February 2020 publication date. What a heckin' forward-thinking genius this lady was. A month or two later, the entire country proceeded to get paid for sitting at home doing nothing of value. I wonder if it chapped her ass to see that having a baby was no longer a requirement.

 

[Haramburger]

I knew I recognized her!

Huh, him too!

 

[ur_mom_lmaoooo]

What's funny about requiring parental leave to be mandatory and equal for both men and women is that Denmark tried it, and it was disastrous.

In Denmark, a couple is awarded a total of 48 weeks of paid parental leave. Initially, only a very small amount was reserved for the father, and all other weeks could be distributed as the couple desired (so in practice, dad would cover maybe 4-6 weeks, while mom would cover the other 42-44 weeks). But in 2022, the requirements changed: each parent now had 11 weeks of nontransferable leave, and if one parent refused to take it, then the couple would just lose it altogether. So men were now basically required to do at least 11 weeks, and women were required to let them or just lose 11 weeks of paid leave altogether.

Well, an entire slew of "equality" benefits resulted (see here for the list). But both male and female parental satisfaction dropped, with women's declining from 90% to 50% and men's from 85% to 65% (now higher than women's). "Equity" quite literally made women's happiness (previously higher than men's) drop below that of men's, with 2/3 of men reporting parental satisfaction versus only 1/2 of women.

But hey, the gender pay gap among new parents fell by 34% and there was a recorded decline in "traditional beliefs", and that's what really matters, right?

 

[Dysnomia]

I was ready to say this woman was a moron and some kind of shill. But calling it caregiver leave may be a better option since it does remove stigma around working mothers and the fact that some fathers are the primary caregiver.

 

[Your Starter for 10]

Ver archivo adjunto 8846441
I knew I recognized her!


Ver archivo adjunto 8846458
Huh, him too!

I was thinking more like:

 

[SwiftBucks]

I keep thinking about that one quote from William Gibson

And, for an instant, she stared directly into those soft blue eyes and knew, with an instinctive mammalian certainty, that the exceedingly rich were no longer even remotely human

 

[Baguette Child]

gender equity SaaS company

I hate this combination of words so much

 

[SwiftBucks]

I hate this combination of words so much

It's so far beyond parody you couldn't make it a skit

 

[Übertroon]

Tricking women into becoming the breadwinner while men can lounge at home all day has been a great success, high fives all around guys

 

[whatever I feel like]

Government should pay for it. If government mandates it, government should pay for it. Something like 25-30 dollars an hour, the national average wage.

 

[SwiftBucks]

Government should pay for it. If government mandates it, government should pay for it. Something like 25-30 dollars an hour, the national average wage.

I don't care if this is ragebait but I agree. Instead of subsidizing the importation of thirdies pay people to have kids

 

[The Black Kettle]

following her website to ‘learn more’ about her saas program leads to a 404. defunct

 

[Otterly]

Of course I wasn’t planning to stay home with him

Why bother having a baby if you’re going to not look after it? Tiny babies need their mothers. For the first few months you are their sole source of food, drink and comfort. You literally keep them alive. You remove that and it’s incredibly distressing for them. Some days you put them down to go and make a cup of tea and they scream inconsolably until you pick them up again - you can see the relief reaction when they’re back in your arms.
I am convinced that early separation of mother and child for daycare is very bad for the developing young. It leads to attachment and behavioural issues. You gotta snuggle babies, for a long time, or they don’t grow right.

Denmark tried it, and it was disastrous

An ideal system would be parental leave, able to be shared as you wish, but not forced. Some men do want to take time, but it needs to be a free choice.

 

[Vesperus]

following her website to ‘learn more’ about her saas program leads to a 404. defunct

Probably because OP is a massive faggot who posted a six year old article.
But, the company's twitter went silent in 2022: I'm not sure what it took to fail as a "gender equity"/DEI company under Biden, but it must have been hilarious.

 

[Dread First]

This article is ghoulish and comes from a time that made it readily apparent that our lives as average jackoffs ain’t crap to people with big money.

 

[ur_mom_lmaoooo]

I am convinced that early separation of mother and child for daycare is very bad for the developing young. It leads to attachment and behavioural issues. You gotta snuggle babies, for a long time, or they don’t grow right.

Research seems to support your assertion (archive). The article gives a nice summary:

Summary of effects​

First, here are the effects of 15–30 hrs of daycare a week, broken down by age.

• For ages 3+, there are few downsides and substantial advantages. Daycare boosts both cognitive skills (literacy and mathematics) and social skills as measured in the first few years at school.
• For age 2, the findings are more mixed. This is the best age to start in terms of boosting later cognitive skills, but children are more likely to act out and be angry when they reach school.
• For age 1, childcare may improve cognitive skills a little, though certainly less than starting at age 2. But it also has even larger negative effects on later behavior in school. There is no boost to social skills.
• For children aged 0–12 months, daycare likely damages cognitive skills and children’s later behavior at school is even worse. There is no boost to social skills.

Basically, the closer you can hold off putting a child in daycare until 3 years of age, the better. And no longer than 6 hours per day.

Powerlevel:

Makes me wonder how fucked up I am from being put in daycare at 6 weeks old (the youngest US daycares allow). Unironically might explain the autism/OCD/clinical anxiety. My siblings are only somewhat better off, likely because they had an additional comfort (me, the oldest sibling) to help reduce the anxiety that I didn't get. There's a really heartbreaking photo we have of me (probably about 15-16 months) standing next to my infant sister (about 6 weeks) in a daycare somewhere, because our parents couldn't afford to take the full 12 weeks of unpaid leave. Shit's fucked, man.

 

[cis mans burden]

Of course I wasn’t planning to stay home with him.

This bitch straight up emotionally stunting her son. I was told frequent skin to skin contact during infancy was important for a secure attachment to the parent.

economic gender equity gap

Lol this is even worse than just saying muh pay gap. Was there ever a word more pozzed in the English language than equity?